Put price on carbon to help save planet

Global emissions temporarily dipped last year with the pandemic, but measurements from atop the Mauna Loa volcano show CO2 levels averaged 419 parts per million in May, reaching its highest levels in human history. Future generations will look back at this moment befuddled by how the generations who invented computers and decoded the human genome let the stable climate on which our civilization depends fail. We are like the frog put into a slowly boiling pot of water who doesn't seem to understand his predicament and the urgent need to jump. But we don't even need to leap, although the climate crisis has forced many in other countries to leave overheated or flooded homes behind. All we need to do is turn off the gas.

Congress is in control of the shut-off valve. With many members under the influence of fossil fuel companies, will they allow us to boil? Climate scientists and economists agree a price on carbon is the most effective and cost-efficient policy to turn off emissions. Our Illinois representatives have taken the lead on carbon pricing legislation with Sen. Durbin and Rep. Newman sponsoring America's Clean Future Fund Act and Rep. Schakowsky signing on as an original co-sponsor of the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act.

Climate scientists say we still have time to avert the worst impacts of climate change, but we must act now.

Laura Winston

Evanston